Viewpoint Speaker Series community art project
I was approached by the Community Impact & Diversity Manager at Fox Cities Performing Arts Center to create an illustration inspired by the Viewpoint Speaker Series that could be turned into a color-by-number art project for members of the community to fill in with their discoveries when they visit the Center for shows.
Client
Fox Cities Performing Arts Center
Year
2025
I kicked off the project by brainstorming with what I knew about the three speakers and working that into a preliminary sketch to pitch:
Ronan Donovan: A wildlife photographer, his talk would be about wolves, chimps, gorillas, and connecting to our own wild nature. I knew I wanted to include one of the animals his talk would focus on. Ergo, the chimp.
Mireya Mayor: An explorer and primatologist, her presentation would be about her unconventional and inspiring path to success. Since her talk centers around her life, I wanted to include a stand-in for Mireya that could be exploring the world of the mural.
David McLain: A photographer, his talk would be about The Blue Zones - areas of the world where people live longer, healthier lives. One of David’s photos is of a woman who lives in one of these Blue Zones. The photo is so striking and fit well with the color palette I was aiming for, so for his part, I included the woman in the photo. I placed her at the end as not only is his show the last in the series for the season, but maybe Blue Zones life like hers is what our “explorer” is trying to reach.
I refined the sketch and drew each of the “boxes” for patrons to fill with something they had discovered recently. In lieu of putting actual numbers in each of the spaces, we opted for a color wash. This was so the piece would still read well from farther away even in the early stages of it being colored in, and also be a color guide that was (hopefully) more intriguing than a bunch of numbers.
This piece will continue to be filled in by patrons of the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center through the end of the 2025-26 season, at which point I will compile all the footage I recorded of the illustration being colored in into a timelapse video to use the P.A.C.’s social media! It’s so rewarding to see people take an interest in this project and I can’t wait to see how it progresses through the rest of the season.
